Numerous apparatuses have been proposed and used for customer interfaces where the customer is sitting in a motor vehicle. For example, drive-in bank tellers have been common for many decades. These drive-in teller booths have been often replaced with automatic teller machines to which a driver may pull-up and transact business through the driver side window of a vehicle. These apparatuses are placed at a height that can be reached by the majority of the vehicles on the road, but this height is generally either too high or too low for any particular vehicle. It is not uncommon for the driver to have to exit the vehicle to utilize such an interface, thus defeating much of the advantage of a customer interface that is intended to be accessed from a vehicle.
Stationary arrangements for customer interfaces are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,027,282 and 4,881,581.
German Patent Application DE 42 42 243 A1 discloses a customer interface for a automated refuelling apparatus that is movable in one direction. Movement is desired in this apparatus because the vehicle is spotted by placing a front tire into a grove, and because the distance from the front tire to the driver's window can vary considerably between vehicles. The customer interface remains at a fixed height, and is not moved toward the vehicle at all. Besides for customer convenience and comfort, it would be particularly desirable to provide an interface that can be consistently be accessed without having to open the driver's door because it would be desirable in an automated refuelling system to have an intruder interruption wherein if a person is detected outside of the vehicle, the automated refuelling is interrupted. It would be unacceptable for such an interruption to result if it were necessary to open the driver's door to access the customer interface.
Further, fixed customer interfaces can only be as close to the vehicle as the driver is capable of pulling up to the interface. A curb is typically provided to prevent a driver from scrapping a protruding review mirror on the interface, resulting in a significant lateral distance between the interface and the driver.
A "customer interface" as referred to herein is meant to mean a panel that is intended to be interfaced with a person sitting in a motor vehicle. Such interface may include, individually or in combination, speakers, microphones, visual displays, card readers, push buttons, shutdown switches, and the like.
It would therefore be desirable to have a customer interface that could be more conveniently accessed by a driver.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a customer interface for a customer seated in a vehicle wherein an interface panel is moved laterally toward a driver's window of the vehicle and vertically to an appropriate height.